Europe to ignore Britain's David Cameron and install Jean-Claude Juncker

Brussels: European Union leaders are set to appoint Jean-Claude Juncker president of the European Commission on Friday, despite strong opposition from British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Mr Cameron has made his opposition to Mr Juncker abundantly clear. He sees the former Luxembourg premier as lacking the will and the skills to overhaul the EU and has told fellow leaders they are making a mistake in backing him, warning of unspecified "consequences" if they persist.

British Prime Minister David Cameron (left) speaks with French President Francois Hollande during a ceremony to mark the Centenary of World War I in Ypres, Belgium, on Thursday. Photo: AP

But other European leaders are likely to ignore Mr Cameron's concerns and install Mr Juncker as head the European Union's executive arm. While decisions among EU leaders are normally by consensus, Mr Cameron wants a vote on Mr Juncker - an unprecedented move officials wanted to avoid but which now looks inevitable.

Diplomats say that if a vote is held, Britain will lose it by 26 to 2, with only Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban backing Mr Cameron. And even Hungary's support is not certain. Being seen to stand up to the EU is domestically important to Mr Cameron who faces pressure from the anti-European, far-right UK Independence Party.

The centre-right European People's Party's candidate for president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, arriving at the EU summit on Thursday. Photo: AFP

The dispute is one of the most public and personal the European Union has experienced in a decade, damaging efforts to present a united front at a time when the bloc is recovering from an economic crisis and keen to bolster its global image.

Despite Mr Cameron's forthright opposition to Mr Juncker, whose centre-right political group won European Parliament elections last month, Britain has failed to convince most of the 27 other member states to support its position.

Mr Juncker's nomination will be discussed over lunch on the second day of an EU summit, which began on Thursday with a show of modern European unity in a ceremony in the Belgian town of Ypres to commemorate the centenary of World War I. Saturday marks 100 years since the assassination of Austro-Hungary's crown prince, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo.